My station will be manned and open to the public. We will verify that everything is O.K. with the units and radios, etc. Primarily we are going to be there as a PR issue. The public will know we are standing by and they can come to the firehouse for any problems.

I'll preface this by saying that the only failures that I expect on Friday night are people failures...the technology is much more reliable than the general public, and they are the weak link in the whole business.

Anyway, we originally weren't going to staff the station unless there was evidence of trouble (power out, etc), since we should have plenty of people close by to respond if needed. Last week, all the stations in the county were informed by County Communications that they will be announcing to the public, via newspaper and TV, that all fire stations in the county will be staffed 10 pm to 2 am New Year's Eve and that people should go there for assistance if they can't get through on 911. No consultation, no chance to render opinions, no alternative plans to be explored (like, put an extra cop at every borough/township municipal building...at least they get paid for it), no nothing.

Since we're not being given any choice in the matter, I guess we're going to have to have someone available to sit around and watch nothing happen. I can feel the excitement already!

No,the world will not end and no,everthing and anything will not instantly stop working at 00:00:00.1hrs on 01/01/00....BUT--people are scared of what they dont know. Therefor, the politicians have to calm those fears so they can be re-elected. So, yes, we will have an Engine crew standing by and we have opened up our firehouse to be a "sub-station" for Rural/Metro Medical Services and the local Sheriff Dept. Why....well, not so we can all have our bacon and eggs watching the mushroom cloud climb into the sky, but rather becuse there just might be that one scared resident who decided to keep a 55 gal drum of gas and a few dozen 20lb LP tanks in his garage "just-in-case"......

We will have a few extra people around on New Years eve - and not the the feared Y2K Bug, but for the "nut jobs" that think it's the end of the world. In my humble opinion - F2K! I'm certain you can figure that one out...